10 Red Dead Redemption 2 Design Choices That Modern Games Would Never Have

Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the best games out there, according to many players who have tried it over the years. And it's no mystery why millions of players feel that way, since the game offers a compelling, immersive story with more than 100 hours of playtime for those looking to discover all its secrets.

However, due to the game's release date (October 2018) and a big focus on a single-player experience, it has more than a few features that would probably make it unattractive to players in today's gaming landscape. That doesn't mean that the game will be unplayable for younger audiences, but it certainly lacks some elements they love and crave.

10 Horses Are Complex

Maintaining Your Ride is an Actual Job in This Game

There are quite a few things you need to worry about and take care of when it comes to horses in RDR2. As your main ride and ally in the game, you will need to clean them, feed them, and watch where you take them, as they can permanently die. Also, taking them into dangerous situations, such as being too close to predator animals or being in shootouts/explosions, can cause them to just buck you off and run away.

On top of that, horses won't allow themselves to be ridden off a cliff (not on the first try anyway), because both you and the horse could die from the fall. This means that you can't just cut your journeys short anyway you'd like and will have to follow roads often. Understandably, mechanisms like this one can be tiresome for some, because similarly, cars in GTA games allow you to fall off almost any cliff and leave you with full HP.

All the described mechanisms could cause the modern audiences to drop the game quickly, since it can be too much work compared to other games where travel is instant, or at least not so demanding. Gamers are used to treating vehicles and pets as disposable resources that don't require much of their time or effort.

9 Manual Weapon Maintenance

Yes, You Have to Do Your Own Cleaning

Your guns will get dirty with time and use, and if you don't maintain them with gun oil or by visiting the gunsmith, their specs will fall off. Mainly, the reload speed, fire rate, and damage get reduced on a dirty gun in RDR2, but there will be some visual effects as well, such as dark smoke and different sounds going off when shooting.

Gun maintenance is rare in modern shooters, and it wouldn't fly with modern audiences because it would break the flow of combat. People don't like noticing mid-battle that their gun suddenly needs three shots to kill a guy when previously two were enough, only to discover that that happened because they haven't cleaned their weapon. The only issue rising in other popular shooters is running out of ammo, so this whole thing would be recognized as an annoyance rather than a cool, realistic feature.

8 The "Slow Walk" and Animation Commitment

Characters Are Not Very Snappy

Movement animations are slow by today's standards, which means getting up, going into a crouch, running, and suddenly stopping, whether on foot or on horseback, will be portrayed more realistically. Also, changing directions mid-run or taking a gun from your horse that wasn't on you before will need to be followed by a full animation.

The slowness of RDR2 wouldn't survive in today's age, as it's far from the tight, responsive animations and controls that newer third-person action games offer, like Spider-Man or God of War. RDR2's developers have intentionally made the game feel sort of sluggish, as they were aiming for a game vibe that sits right between full realism and a totally arcade, snappy game. That is what many players like me (30+) actually prefer!

7 Story Takes Time to Develop

Revealing Different Aspects of the Game and Locations Takes Time

Everyone who has ever asked around about Red Dead Redemption 2 knows that the game has a long campaign, and when you add an occasional side quest, it can take well over 150 hours to complete. As you are starting the game, in Chapter 1, you will play through a couple of hours before getting a map and an open world to roam through.

Different dialogues, whether in the mainline plot or side adventures, can move slowly, which isn't very appealing to some players. Today's games usually go for a quick "hook" on players and give them frequent rewards to keep them engaged, because studios fear players will abandon the game before the good stuff comes.

I have to admit that some dialogues and NPC encounters did feel tiring, but overall, the game compensated for it with its amazing details that people discover years later.

6 Realistic Weapon Management

Plan Out Your Shootout

Unlike many action-adventure games that allow you to carry a bazooka, multiple machine guns, tons of grenades, and ammo that could supply a small army, RDR2 is more reserved on that matter. Once you hop off a horse, you can only carry two sidearms and two bigger weapons like rifles. If you wish to swap one of your weapons, you need to go back to your horse and pull it from its bag.

My go-to was always dual revolvers, with a repeater rifle and a shotgun, but who knows what you're going to need once you're in a gun fight? A bow can be useful for both stealth kills and blowing piled-up enemies (pointing to dynamite arrows), a sniper can be good for long-distance kills, and a shotgun for those quick one-shot kills without bothering to aim too much, but you can't have all.

The reason I believe this system wouldn't fly in modern games is that developers don't like to inconvenience players between encounters. The focus is put on the fighting itself, and even though RDR2's weapon management is part of the Wild West role-playing experience, it's understandable how it can be frustrating for some.

5 Harsh And Annoying Witness and Crime Systems

When You Don't Even Know You're Committing a Crime

Sometimes the game can be too harsh on you and put the law on your neck for doing banal things like bumping into someone, shooting a guy who shot at you first, or even just touching a body on the gallows. This is not to say that these things happen all the time, but the system is sensitive enough that it can disturb your plans and make you go into shootouts that you didn't plan, or make you run away from an area that you wanted to visit.

The game features even some more bizarre examples, such as law officers chasing me after I shot bandits that were a part of the main plot mission, only because a witness reported it!

In short, we could say that modern games avoid these types of systems that could annoy players easily and go for simplifying crime and its consequences. RDR2's system is unpredictable by design, creating an environment that feels alive. However, not every player necessarily wants that.

4 Missable Random Encounters and Content

Are You Sure You Completed All Side Quests?

There are a couple of layers of side quests or side events in RDR2. The side quests are usually missions with familiar characters that get activated on certain occasions in your story, while side events are random encounters with strangers that can drag you into an interesting plot. Both of these categories have events that are active only during certain chapters or under specific conditions (for example, during the night). Also, there are weapons that can easily be missed if you don't follow through with all the content the game has to offer.

I had a situation where a random guy on the side of the road asked me to guard his horse while he ran an errand. I was in the middle of a different mission at the time, so I refused. Fast-forward to dozens and dozens of playtime hours later, and I've never seen him again.

This wouldn't fly today for most players, because many people like to complete the whole game at 100% with all the stripes and achievements. Modern games often include many reminders and markers to help players go in and complete the whole story whenever they can, without being punished for not doing a certain side quest at a certain time.

3 Massive Single-Player Experience With Minimal Monetization Pressure

New Games Rarely Offer Such An Experience

Both RDR2 and GTA V have gigantic open-world environments that are good enough on their own and don't require players to purchase any battle passes or daily log-in rewards. The online multiplayer version certainly offers this stuff, but many players have never stepped into it, according to Steam Charts, which show an average of 40k players for the RDR2 base game in the past 30 days, compared to only 648 for RDR2 Online.

The player retention tactics in modern games differ because they're built around systems of engagement that offer plenty of rewards to players who stay engaged the most. A much faster-paced environment rich with cosmetics, boosts, regular content updates, etc., compared to the slow story mode of RDR2's original game.

2 The Game Often Refuses to Rush the Story

Rushing Missions Makes You Miss Out On Important Details

The story of RDR2 looks more like a classical slow-paced novel than a western action movie. There will be entire sections of chapters featuring long dialogues, with no shooting, robbing, or running whatsoever. We can say that developers focused heavily on building characters and their relationships, and if you skip some cutscenes, you may not fully understand them and the wider story, which is one of the game's strengths.

Modern games like Diablo, can often be rushed in a matter of hours for those who want that experience. Players like to face bigger and bigger challenges as soon as they can, so they go for higher levels, better gear, better boosts, etc. RDR2 is the opposite of that, since even when you unlock new weapons, you don't go to the "next level." You simply have a different style weapon that isn't stronger than your previous ones (every headshot is an instant kill, whether you're using a shotgun with explosive bullets or a revolver with regular bullets). All of this makes RDR2 one of the top open-world games that reward slow play.

1 The Economy Is Weirdly Realistic

The Game Doesn't Want to Spoil You

Money matters pretty much early on in the game for some basic things like buying new guns, equipment upgrades, camp upgrades, etc., but the game doesn't shower you with it. Of course, if you want, you can grind and rob everyone, or loot everybody you kill, but even that won't put you in a situation where you're a tycoon that can buy whatever he pleases.

Many modern AAA games avoid this kind of slower progression because they’re designed to keep players moving quickly from one reward to the next with steady unlocks and constant upgrades. RDR2 is comfortable letting players feel poor, underprepared (you won't always get the newest gun as soon as it's unlocked), or stuck with limited resources for long stretches, especially in the early chapters. In a way, the atmosphere is also connected to the story, since one of the game's main themes is the gang's pursuit of "one last big score.